Leo daft



(No Model.)

L. DAPT.

INSULATOR FOR TRACKS.

No. 320,633. Patented June 23,1885.

ggsf s; I lzggfar L7 W 3% I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LEO DAFT, OF GREENVILLE, NEW JERSEY.

INSULATOR FOR TRACKS.

$PECIPICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 320,633, dated June 23,1885.

Application filed March 9, 1885.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, LEO DAFT, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, residing at Green ville, in the county of Hudson and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Insulators for Tracks, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to rails or conductors for conveying the electric current, and more particularly to the third or intermediate rail as used in electric railways to convey the elec tric current to the motor on the engine or vehicle traveling upon the exterior rails.

My invention consists in a peculiar rail adapted for such purposes, and in the means of insulating it from its supports, as more particularly pointed-out hereinafter.

In the drawings, Figures 1 2, and 3 are transverse sections showing various forms of rails and means for insulating them.

In rails of the class specified, as they are not intended to support heavy weights of trains, but merely the wheel, brush, or other contacting device, which is intended to convey the electric current from the rail to the motor on the vehicle traveling on the outer contiguous rails, it is not necessary that they should be constructed with a view to great strength but the controlling feature of such rails is that they should be good conductors of electricity and capable of thorough insulation, in order that too much resistance may not be offered to the electric current and that leakages of the current may not occur.

With these ends in view I have produced a rail that is exceeding simple, cheap, and effective; and I will now describe some of the formsin which I have embodied my inven tion.

The rail A is shown as having a top or bearing surface, a, of any desired contour, upon which the brush, wheel, or other device contacts, and provided with extended or projecting sides, flanges, or curtains Z) I).

The under side of the rail 0 may be made with a continuous groove or slot, (1, as shown in Fig. 1; or it may be made solid, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, and have holes or slots 6 6, formed therein at suitable intervals, to receive the insulators B.

The insulators B are interposed between the (No model.) I

and supported between lugs attached to theshoe or support D. In Fig. 2 the insulator is represented as being a screwthreaded standard of some insulating material connected to the shoe, and the screw-threaded portion entering a tapped slot in the under side of the rail.

In Fig. 3 the shoe is formed with a standard, D, preferably screw-threaded, and some flexible insulating material is interposed between the standard and the recessedor slotted rail. Various other forms of insulation will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art. and my invention is not limited to them or to the particular contour of the conducting-rail, the rail'being in each instance shown as having downwardly-extended sides or curtains that shed the water and protect the insulators from moisture and the deleterious influences of the elements.

That I claim is- 1. An electric conductor or rail having an exterior bearing surface l'orthecurrent-takers, and provided with sides or curtains extending downwardly at an angle, substantially as described.

2. An electric conductor or rail having downwardly-extended sides or curtains,'and having slots or grooves in the under side for the reception of insulators, substantially as described.

3. The combination, with an electric rail or conductorhaving downwardly-extending sides or curtains, of shoes or supports, and insulators interposed between the supports and the rail, whereby the insulators are protected from moisture, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

LEO DAFT.

IVitnesses:

J NO. N. BRUNS, W. H. J ONES. 

